Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Monday, February 13, 2012

These wonderful Tiki masks were designed by our 4-6th grade artists! We began by sketching perfectly symmetrical masks and giving them a strong black outline. These were then colored in using bright colors and painted over with a very watered down black tempera to create a batik effect. The students learned about the Maori tribes of New Zealand and their style of artwork. These masks were a fun way for our students to explore the art and culture of Polynesia!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

This was a great winter themed project for the little ones! We started by doing a cool color tissue paper collage with a simple border of white squares. I taught the students how to stamp white snowflakes too. Last, we constructed some cardinals using simple shapes like half circles, triangles, and rectangles. Cardinals are often considered winter birds because they do not migrate south, instead they stay around in the colder climates.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

This is the first classroom project we have completed for the annual Dealey PTA Silent Auction! Mrs.Gilbert's 4-6 class painted some watercolor blends that were later punched out into butterfly shapes and attached onto this 18"x24"canvas. Hopefully this stunning piece will bring in big money for our school!

Takashi Murakami is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art. He coined the term superflat, which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society.

The International Academy art students studied Murakami as part of our unit exploring Japanese Art. We looked at some of his designs fro Louis Vuitton, his videos for Kanye West, and his vast collection of deformed Manga characters. Each Academy class took a different Murakami print and divided it up into a large scale mural. This is a great collaborative project because students need to work together to make sure each piece lines up and all the colors match.

We began by making a tissue paper collage with cool colors and a little magenta thrown in. The next week we used blue and violet (cool colors again) to create a patterened and moving night sky. We finished by cutting the tissue collage into tree shapes and glueing those on top of our paintings. We added simple snowflakes in the sky and some gold branches too. The strong color harmony is complimented by the placement of the shapes, creating a great use of perspective in the artworks!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Giraffes are my absolute favorite animal, so every year I have to pull in at least one giraffe project. This was inspired by a photograph I came across recently. I began with a step-by-step drawing of the giraffe starting with the nose. Once the drawing was complete, students outlined everything with either a black or brown crayon. We later used watercolor paint and attached some leaves for a little 3D effect. This was definitely a standout project that was a success for every student!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Students discovered the various artworks of Henri Matisse and completed these still-lifes in his style. We began by doing some crayon rubbings of various Matisse style cut-out pieces. We then created a vase and several pop-up flowers, a subject seen very often in the artwork of Matisse.